MUMBAI: Mukesh Bhatt was unanimously elected as president of The Film & Television Producers Guild of India at the first meeting of the newly-elected Guild Council of Management on 15 September.

Bhatt succeeded Ramesh Sippy who retired as the President after his tenure of two years.

Siddharth Roy Kapur has also been unanimously elected as VP of the Guild. Dheeraj Kumar, Ashutosh Gowariker and Vipul Shah were re-elected as VP along with the re-election of Manish Goswami and Ashim Samanta as Treasurers.

Ekta Kapoor and Shrishti Arya were also nominated as the two new members in the newly formed Guild Council of Management for the year 2012-13.

Kulmeet Makkar will continue to manage the affairs of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd as its CEO.

Bhatt said "I have imbibed a lot from Shri Ramesh Sippy over the last two years. In particular, Shri Sippy‘s insight in taking several crucial decisions for Guild was amazing and will act as a source of inspiration to me. It is a great privilege to lead a prestigious entertainment trade body such as the Guild and I will work to the best of my capabilities and energies and strive for the interests of the Guild and the entertainment industry. I seek the support of all the Council and Guild members in our objective to aggressively pursue and resolve the problems of the industry."

I also welcome the induction of Ekta Kapoor and Shrishti Arya into the Guild Council. Their knowledge and expertise will undoubtedly benefit the Council and the Guild. As President of the Guild, it will be my endeavor to work together and join forces with the other Council & fellow Guild members and other entertainment trade bodies to strive for the welfare and progress of the Indian entertainment industry in the ultimate analysis."

Sippy added, "During my tenure over the course of the last two years, the Guild has taken up several issues of the entertainment industry and though some of the matters have not been fully resolved, there is no doubt about the genuineness of our efforts in trying to resolve these problems and I am thankful to all my team members for their support and co-operation. I will continue to provide my wholehearted support to the Guild whenever my services are required. I am sure that the next management team will carry on with their efforts to resolve these significant industry matters. I wish them all the very best for their journey."

The other members of the newly elected Council of Management of Guild are Yash Chopra, Manmohan Shetty, Kamal Kumar Barjatya, Amit Khanna, Rakesh Roshan, Bobby Bedi, Sushil kumar Agrawal, Rajkumar Kohli, Karan Johar, Vishal Bharadwaj, Farhan Akhtar, Prosenjit Chatterjee, D.Suresh Babu, Kiran Shantaram and Randhir Kapoor are permanent members.